


'We Get What We Get' 2

by MeJacinta



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: After Arkham, Agent Kory Anders and Detective Dick Grayson, F/M, Season Finale, Trigon's dream world, angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 05:59:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17380946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeJacinta/pseuds/MeJacinta
Summary: When Kory’s shoulders dropped quite uncharacteristically, a wave of apprehension swept across Dick’s gut for a brief moment: he had never known her to be reluctant about sharing anything.“All right then,” Kory said, heaving a breath. “I … married.”





	'We Get What We Get' 2

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely adored the idea of Kory and Dick as Agent and Detective in the season finale! I am sure they would kill it in a cop show of their own...tee hee! Anyway, this is another filler story for the finale set around after Dick punched the pimp in the motel. Enjoy.

'He can’t be saved…he has to be stopped'.

Dick would have liked to believe that it was the freezing weather from outside that made him shudder. But it was Kory’s words ringing home for the first time that did.

Heck, who wouldn’t be so pressed with obligation after combing through the freak show at the Arkham Asylum---an actual massacre orchestrated by Batman himself?

Gotham City Police Department had literally descended into chaos afterwards. Almost everyone was barking at each another now… and pointing accusing fingers too. 

Across the long hall, Captain Frank Finney was in a heated discussion with his lieutenants, very nearly foaming at the mouth. Dick could swear he had seen that man somewhere, but he could not pin down where just yet.

As he mulled over that, his eyes suddenly landed on the purple streak that was Kory’s top as she glided across the hall, still every bit the epitome of calm and determination in a whirlpool of confusion.

'He has to be stopped', Dick remembered as Kory vanished into a corner. Still, he remained leaning on the desk in his private work station, more of a wistful observer than he was a detective.

“Coffee?” Kory was standing at his doorway once again, two steaming cups of coffee in her hands.

Dick barely flinched at her surprise entrance this time. The nightmare at Arkham had wrung him dry of all emotions anyway. 

“I’ll be joining you guys in a second,” he groaned, squeezing his eyelids shut for a moment.

“Not in 'that' condition.” 

Kory closed the distance between them, forcing one cup into Dick’s hand. “This is pretty good for Department coffee, you know. You’ll be up and running in---”

Kory almost spilled her coffee when she spotted Dick’s right fist. “What the fuck is this?”

Dick recoiled his swollen, throbbing hand from Kory’s prying touch---the one he had generously dug into the asshole’s face at the motel. 

“Not important,” he grunted, using his left hand to set Kory’s coffee cup on the desk.

She grabbed his hand anyway, and he could tell she was gasping---even from behind her unimpressed, quirked eyebrow look. “You punched a guy?”

“It could have been worse.”

“Stop defending yourself.”

Dick pursed his lips, slipping his hand out of Kory’s warm ones. “I stopped myself before it could get worse---can I at least get some credit for that?”

A suppressed laugh escaped from Kory’s lips. Her large, emerald eyes met Dick’s in a dazed moment, and it was then he noticed how slightly reflective and nostalgic she seemed.

So he quickly steered the conversation anywhere else but where both she and he were threatening to head. “How is life taking you?” 

Dick could have cringed at how general the question sounded. “I mean, we’ve talked about everything but you so far, you know,” he added more confidently.

Kory’s forehead wrinkled. “Your former friend is on a murderous rampage and you wanna know how 'I’m' doing?”

“It’s been a while,” Dick insisted, sipping his warm coffee, “A lot must’ve happened.”

When Kory’s shoulders dropped quite uncharacteristically, a wave of apprehension swept across Dick’s gut for a brief moment: he had never known her to be reluctant about sharing anything.

“All right then,” Kory said, heaving a breath. “I … married.”

Dick almost lost the grip on his cup. When? He had wanted to ask her. But he was silly to defy the basic rules of physics by trying to speak and drink at the same time. 

He swallowed the lump of coffee hitched in his throat and pretended to be calm. 

“Umm…who’s the lucky guy?”

“I mean I was married once,” Kory hurried to elaborate, mirroring the confusion on Dick’ face. “In Tamaran.”

Dick put aside his cup of coffee. “Was?”

“He died in battle.” A smile, sad and thoughtful, flickered across Kory’s face as she murmured, “He was a good man.”

“Kory…” Dick started. 

But Kory cut him off. “It doesn’t hurt, okay? At least not as much as it naturally should.”

Dick put on his ‘you’re bullshitting me’ face and watched Kory unravel at a painfully slow pace. She had always been good at being the strong one, but he knew too well the painful price they both paid years ago for being ‘strong’.

“Fine, it hurts more than I expect it to,” Kory admitted, tossing her long sheet of black hair over her shoulder. “I literally relive the experience once in a while.”

Dick moved over to create space for Kory on his desk. “You still have the nightmares?”

“Apparently, there’s a lot to work out in my head” Kory retorted dropping down beside him, “But after five years I can say the worst has passed.”

“What more did you find out?”

“It’s a long story,” Kory said dragging at the word 'long'. And just like that, Dick sensed that he had not quite succeeded at running from her spotlight. “Besides, I’m not done with you yet.”

Dick resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the first waves of indifference washed over him.

“Not much has changed, has it---pounding a guy to a pulp like that?” Kory continued. 

Dick could have imagined the smirk in her voice, but that did not stop him from jumping to his defense. 

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I shouldn’t have come here, Kory.”

Kory looked genuinely concerned now. So much so that she crossed the room to close the door in front of her. “So you could live the rest of your life in a bubble, Dick?”

Dick could see the Tamaran warrior in her as she left the door to pointedly stand in front of him, levelling him down with a killer stare that said ‘not happy’.

“Fuck, no!” she emphasized. “Both you and me knew a time like this would come.”

Dick settled his gaze on Kory for an intense, short moment before she sat down. How did she fucking do it—read his mind all the damn time? He did not know whether to shake her by the shoulders or… Or what else?

Dick ran his tongue across his lower lip, suddenly noticing how close Kory was to him. His thigh was just that close to brushing hers as they sat beside each other. 

“We can’t run away from the past, I guess,” he said softly.

Nothing could have prepared him for the adorably disarmed look on Kory’s face when she turned to face him. Her lips were parted in what exactly…? Fear? Or was it anxiety… at the obvious reference to their past relationship in Dick’s words?

But Dick just went on, a newfound courage burning in his chest. He wanted to confront his past mistakes, as Kory had told him to, once and for all.

“I should have waited for you, Kory.”

“Dick…” Kory said, making as if to stand. 

But Dick touched her arm to stop her. “You need to know that.”

Kory sighed heavily and settled back beside him. “What if…it was my fault for once?”

What? Dick huffed an incredulous short laugh through his nostrils. “What if it was none of our fault?” 

As Kory mulled over his words, Dick unashamedly stared. He had not really looked at her that closely since landing in New York. It were as if he was seeing her for the first time: how her eyes glowed so exquisitely in the dark like two emerald gems, how her full lips dripped that dark cherry hue, how she played with her manicured fingernails unconsciously...

Kory’s throat clearing was Dick’s cue to stop gazing. “’Well,” she said eventually, “sometimes in life we don’t choose what we get…”

“We get what we get,” Dick completed dully.

A sad smile tugged at the corners of Kory’s lips for a split second before she assumed her cool, composed demeanor.

“Well, life’s not fair,” Dick let her know, because he felt like that would be the last he could get to see of her physically in years. If things went well with Bruce, and that was a large if, he would be back to his perfectly normal life with little Johnny and Dawn. Normal was all he had ever wanted. But why did something so perfectly right feel so terribly wrong now?

And as though she had been reading his mind, Kory uttered: “If you play by the rules, life could be fair.”

“You know, playing by the rules never suited you.”

“If it makes you like me less then I’m good with that.”

Dick jerked his back straight. He had not seen that coming…at all. But this was Kory, and he guessed it was no secret to both Kory and Dawn that even after half a decade, he still loved her. That was why he had to be far away from her as was humanly possible.

“Kory,” he said, a lump still clinging to his throat, “I would never hate you.”

Kory’s voice, soft but firm, fluttered to his ears. “I know that, Dick. Besides, you wouldn’t be alive if you did.”

Dick had to resist the urge to jab at her with his classic ‘Kory, no killing’ joke. Even in his darkest moments, Kory had a way of disarming him with her humor.

For a while, they said nothing to each other: it was necessary to let the nostalgic giddiness dissolve between them, otherwise they would end up doing something they would both regret.

Kory was the first to speak. “Have…have you made your decision?”

She was referring to Bruce, of course, and Dick gratefully tuned back to his no-nonsense, detective self. 

This time, there was rock solid conviction in his voice when he looked directly into Kory’s eyes.

“Yeah. I have.”

Batman would soon be unveiled to the world as Bruce Wayne.


End file.
